


Green eye monster

by rite8



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-12
Updated: 2014-04-23
Packaged: 2018-01-19 01:57:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 17,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1451173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rite8/pseuds/rite8
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>May be read as one-off fic or part of series. Will see how this goes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Green eye

**Author's Note:**

> English is not my first language. Sorry for any mistakes in grammar or anything. I'm using this as a medium to improve my English writing skills.

Chapter 1  


Hope slammed the door shut. The bang of the door gives her little satisfaction. The door open again and her roommate, Carli walk in with her typical one eyebrows rose.  


“You know I am behind you right? What if the door slammed against my pretty face?”  


Hope just shrugged and threw her gloves on the bed.  


“What’s up with you?” Carli asked again. Although she knows what made the keeper had a bad mood, she still wait for the keeper to answer her.  


“I don’t know what you are talking about. I’m just acting normal like I always do.” Hope wishes that her roommate just drop it. She is really not in the mood for baring her feelings right now. She doesn’t even look at Carli when she answers so that her friend will not pick up her lies.  


“I can’t help you if you don’t tell me Hope. I just want to avoid future door slamming to my face.” Carli insisted.  


Hope sat down on the bed and just look down on her hands. “ImpissedoffwithKelly.” She mumbled through her teeth.  


Carli turned to Hope. “I cannot hear anything through your mumble friend. I just think I heard Kelley’s name in there. What did she do now?” She smirked at the keeper.  


Hope just lies back on the back and stared at the ceilings. She always thought that the defender’s personal objective in each training camp is to invade her personal space. Kelley will always find a way to go near her either by sitting at the back of the bus, sitting beside her during team dinner or wait for the keeper after training to walk to locker together. Each camp, she will find Kelley either 2 or 3 feet around her and she will always make sure Hope acknowledge her presence.  


At first she always hates it when Kelley keeps invaded her personal space. However, for the last few years since the Olympic game, she rather expects it from the small defender. Hence, this brings back to her current dilemma. Currently the team is in a camp for their 2 international friendly games against China, and they have been in the camp for one week. Within the past few days, Kelley did not even attempt to come near her once. The only thing she got is a few smiles from the defender while they stand in the room across each other. Hope will never let the other knows that she miss Kelley’s laugh and silly jokes when they are together.  


“I thought she left you well alone this time? I remember you always complained about her interrupting your private time. Isn’t this what you want? Don’t tell me you miss that kid.” Carli asked knowingly.  
Hope moves her eyes from the ceilings and gives her famously called ‘death stare’ to her friend.  


“Don’t call her kid, princess. She’s very mature on her own right okay.” Hope defends. She knows Carli hates that nickname. She wants her roomate to change to subject.  


When Carli didn't say anything, rolled her eyes and ignored her, Hope just sigh and stand abruptly. She went to her bag and takes her changes of clothes.  


“I need a shower.” She tells her roommate. She stands under the hot showers hoping it will sooth down her tired body. She hears the front doors open and close.  


Seconds later she hears Carli’s shouting at her. “Hope! I’m going down to get a coffee with the Lemew. If you want me to bring back some for you text me please.”  


The door open and closes again. She releases a long breath. Since the first day Kelley steps into the camp, Hope noticed her presence. The sweet and adorable nature of the defender always attracts other people to be near her. Hope is not immune to it as well. But she always waits for Kelley to make the first move. Either Kelley will come to her for a goodnight hug or insist Hope giving her piggyback ride to the locker room. If Hope ignores her, she will just jump on Hope back and clung tightly on her neck. Hope will need to hold the defender back to avoid being chock to death. So basically, she is just saving her own life in letting the defender clung to her back. Not because she likes to be close to the defender.  


This time around, there was no hug or piggyback request from the defender. She just watched as Kelley laughs and jokes with other players, especially with the rookies. It is normal for the senior player in team to welcome the new joiners. Some will play jokes on them (Syd and Pinoe), some will shout at them (herself, Carli and Abby) and some players will offer advice and guidance (Ali and Lauren).  


Hope scowled when she was reminded of their afternoon practice. She remembered Kelley being friendlier with Morgan. Yes they are roommate. But it doesn’t mean that Kelley needs to be so touchy with the rookie. Hope can feel her shoulders tighten again. She finishes her shower and walk out from the bathroom wearing her shirt and towel. Then she stands stills.  
Kelley is sitting on Hope’s bed while going through the magazines that Hope’s bought from the lobby yesterday.  


“What are you doing here?” Hope grumbled.  


Kelley jumps startled when she hears Hope’s voice. She puts the magazine on the bedside table.  


“Erm… Carli let me in. She said you want to talk to me.” She replies. She knows she has been neglecting the keeper since the camp starts. Carli has told her earlier that she is responsible for Hope’s bad mood and she intent to change it. She missed her number one keeper.  


Hope cursed Carli. She walks to her bag and start to find her pants. She dropped the towel and continues dressing. When she turned toward the defender, she can see Kelley’s cheek blushes bright red and immediately avoid making eye contact with Hope.  


“So what…. You just happen to walk by our room when Carli said that?” Hope walks to Carli’s bed. She intends to ignore the defender. She takes the pillows and set it against the headboard before leaning against it.  


She starts to reach for the remote control and switch on the television.  


Before she can do that, a hand wrap around her wrist. Kelley takes the remote and put it on the table. She keeps holding Hope’s hand while starting to make a move to the bed Hope’s lying on. Hope can feel her body tensed. She feels the bed dip slightly beside her while the defender sits beside her.  


“I just want to see you Hope.” Kelley blurted out. She moves her hand to hold the keeper right hands.  


“I want to know how you are. Carli told me you have been in a very bad mood this pass few days.” Hope just shrugged her shoulders.  


“There’s nothing much to tell you Kell. I’m still the bitchy goalkeeper that people always calls me. There’s nothing new in that.”  


“Hey! You are not that person!” Kelley protests.  


“Apparently, I am one because suddenly everyone starts to avoid me like a plague.” She huffed out. She can feel Kelley turning her body to face the keeper.  


“Hope, are you talking about me?” Kelley’s eyes widened. Hope rolled her eyes.  


“Not everything is about you, Kell.” Hopes denies vehemently.  


Kelley takes Hopes right arm and brings it around her shoulder. She keeps her grip on the keeper hand when Hope struggles to remove it. She slowly envelopes Hope’s knuckle with her hand and bring it to her mouth. When Hope feels Kelley’s lips at the back of her hand she stops struggling. Hope can feel her tensed body start to loosen up.  


When Hope feels the defender leaning her head at her usual spot (the curve of Hope’s neck and shoulder), she releases a big sigh. Hope can smell the shampoo from Kelley’s hair. She takes a deep breath and feels her body calming down. She can’t pin point the exact time that she start to be totally relaxes within the defender presence. The defender always knows what to do with Hope to keeps her centre and calm. Either by keeping her grip on the keeper’s hand or giving a chaste kiss on any body parts that her small body can reach. Hope smiled when she remember that Kelley once asked her to squat down so she can kiss the keeper forehead.  


“I’m sorry.” Kelley said softly.  


“I’m sorry if you feel that I’m avoiding you. But I’m not! Honest!” Kelley release one hand and made a show of crossing her heart with it. Hope smiles. The defender does act like a kid sometimes.  


“I’m just excited to be in camp and fully healthy to play once again. And meeting up with the new rookies, they are so eager and hilarious! Especially Moe!! It brings me back you know.” Kelley sighed dreamily.  


Hope can feel her body tensed again after hearing Morgan’s name. She knows she don’t have the right to be jealous on all the attention the rookie receives from her defender.  
But there are other players in the team. Why can’t she be close with Tobin or Lauren for a change? They both have experience as a midfielder and can share their knowledge with the kid. Why need a defender to help her around? Hope’s forehead scrunched tight while she thinks about it. Before she realizes it, she feels Kelley’s finger caress her forehead to smooth it.  


“Hey, are you mad at me? You only make that face when you are angry.” Kelley look up at Hope’s with teary eyes.  
Hope sighed. She knows she is not mad with her favorite defender. She only can blame whoever that put Kelley to be rooming together with Morgan. She brings Kelley closer to her body. She kissed Kelley’s forehead.  


“No, Kell. I’m not mad at you. It’s just…” Hope sighed. She is not sure whether she can explain her feelings at the moment. She doesn’t want the defender to laugh at her if she knows that Hope is jealous of her relationship with the new rookie.  


“You can tell me anything, Hope. Even if you are mad at me. Then, I will know how to make it up to you.” Hope can feel her mouth twitching upwards.  


“Are you sure you want to make it up to me? It may cost you lots of coffee.” Hope replies.  


“Does that mean you are angry with me?” Kelley frowned. She really is not sure whether the keeper is mad with her or not. Either way, she does want to make the keeper smile and happy again.  
Hope cursed inwardly. Her mouths do tend to just tell what is inside her mind when she looks at the brown eyes.  


“Really… Kell. I am not angry with you. I just miss our time together. That’s all.” Kelley lean back and squinted her eyes looking at Hope. Then when she satisfies with whatever she looking for she slowly nodded her head.  


“Okay! Do you want to have a coffee now? Moe said she going to the café across our hotel to study because they have free wifi. Maybe we can invite her together.” Kelley says excitedly.  
Hope grinded her teeth when she hears Morgan name’s mention again. She can feel her jaws clench tightly because of that.  


“Are you okay? Why do you keep getting tense up when I say Morgan’s name?” Kelley implored.  


Hope keeps quiet. She try to look anywhere other than the defender’s eye. She can feel Kelley’s hand on her cheek. Kelley pushes Hope faces so that the keeper looking at her. She knows Hope will not lie if she able to looks into the keeper eyes.  


“Hope?” Kelley persists.  


Hope sighs loudly. She might as well tell the defender. Maybe she will laugh at her but at least it will be out there in the open.  


“I’m jealous okay. I’m jealous that you spend more time with Morgan than me. I keep thinking that you have replaces me with her. I know I am hard to deal with sometimes but you are the one that keep insisting to be my friend. So maybe you are tired of my attitude. I understand and have accepted it. But it doesn’t mean that I have to like it!” She blurts out.  


She watches as Kelley’s face changes from confuse to amusement while she listens. Suddenly she turns and straddles Hope to hug her tightly. She can feel Kelley’s arm tighten on her neck while she kisses Hope’s cheek and put her head on the keeper’s neck.  


“I’ll never leave you Hope. There is no one that can replace you. You are the only one for me.” She hears Kelley murmurs to her neck. Hope smiled widely. She knows Kelley have a good heart. And now when she thinks back she feels a bit stupid in thinking that Kelley will forgets about their friendships.  


“Plus, I cannot handle more than one bitchy person to me at a time. Once you start being bitchy, I cannot deal with anyone else already.” Kelley added. Hope pinches the defender waist and started to tickles the defender. Kelley laughs and squirms around to get away from Hope. But the keeper keeps her holds and started to turn the defender on her back.  


“Hope!! Ahahha…. please… Stop! Stop! Ahahaha” Kelley tried to tip over the body above her but to no avail. Then she just grabs Hope’s hand and holds it tightly.  


“Okay… okay. I give up. Please, Hope. I don’t want to pee on the bed.” Kelley jokes.  


Hope immediately stops when she hears that. She raises her eyebrows when Kelley laughs maniacally. She can imagine what Carli will say if she founds them messing up her bed like this. She pulls Kelley to sit up and hugs her. She can feel Kelley hugging her back. She feels content when the defender is in her arms.  


“Can we go for a coffee now? I think I need one. And I still need to make it up to you right.” Hope smile when she hears that.  


“Okay. Let’s go. I think we can join Carli and Lemew for the coffee.” Hope relents. She stands up and pulls Kelley to her feet. She keeps Kelley hands in hers while she moves to take her jacket and keys.  


While they are walking out the door, she hears Kelley mumbles amusedly, “Yeah, just not with Morgan right?” Hope just smiles and walks out to the lift together. If Kelley notices that the keeper still holding her hands, she didn’t say anything about it.


	2. Coffee break

Once they both pass the entrance of the hotel, Hope can feel the warm air from the afternoon started to cool off. She let Kelley grab hold of her left arms. Kelley claims that it keeps her warm and Hope just let her. Earlier on, Carli has texted that she and the Lemew pairs are situated at the same cafe that Kelley invited her. 

They walk silently to the cafe, which hardly seem believable if the defender walks with someone else. Kelley likes to chat or rambles on whatever topic that she can think of when she walks. She also talks with her hands. The animated gestures she made always amused the other players. However, with Hope she likes to keep herself silent and absorb the feeling of peace when she was with the keeper.

When they both walk in the café 10 minutes later, Hope notices Morgan immediately. She saw the rookie sitting together with the other 2 college players and their table is full with notes and books. Hope takes a relief breath. If the rookies are busy studying, it means they don’t need to socialize much with them. She feels Kelley tug on her arms.

“What do you want Hope? It’s on me. Do you want your usual?” Kelley asked eagerly.

“It’s on you huh? Surprise me then.” Kelley smiled at Hope replies.

“Okay, you can go sit down first. I will bring your coffee bought by my amazing self.” Hope chuckles while she walks away to find her roommate. She nods her head when she passes the rookies table. Only Morgan looks up to her while she passes by. She offers a small smiles and watches as Morgan looks surprised and tries her best to smiles back.

She can see Carli sits near the back of the café on a 2-seater sofa while facing the Lemew pairs. She looks unimpressed with the pair as Syd is throwing her muffin crumbs to her best friend, Kristie. Hope can hear Kristie shouting Syd’s name and Carli’s warning to both of them while she’s getting near them. 

When Carli makes eye contact with her, Hope smiles. Both Carli’s eyebrows rise. Hope mood’s swing confuses her sometimes. But when she looks over Hope’s shoulder and can see Kelley’s waiting for her turn at the counter, she smiles knowingly.

Once Hope reaches, she started to look around for another chair. When she found none, she scowls. 

“What are you looking for Hope?” Carli asked. Both Syd and Kristie stop playing with the crumbs and looks up at Hope expectantly when they hear Carli questions. They also stop to avoid Hope death stare which they know will come if they continue with their childish behavior. The funny thing that the team has notice is that if Kelley is the one acting childishly, Hope wills just looks at her adoringly. Seems the squirrel is Hope’s kryptonite.

“I’ve invited Kelley to join us. I didn’t know the place will be so crowded.” Her scowls still firm on her face.

The Lemew pairs smiles at each other knowingly and start to type furiously on their phone. Hope suspect they are having conversation with each other and want to avoid other people hearing it. When she hears Syd giggles, she glared at the pairs giving them a fair warning. 

The pair turns somber immediately when they saw the keeper’s face. Hope smirked at the pair while sitting down beside Carli.

“Don’t worry Hope. We are leaving soon either way, and then squirrel can sit at my place.” Kristie offer graciously. The younger player in the team likes to call Kelley by ‘squirrel’ while the senior like to call her a kid. Only Hope call’s the defender by Kell and she usually uses it when it only involves both of them. 

“So…. Why suddenly you are in a good mood? Before I come down, you look like you want to punch a hole through the wall?”

Hope just shrugged her shoulder. “I choose to not dwell on my problems.” Carli looks on unconvincingly. 

“Are you sure it’s not because of the small defender that are waiting in line at the counter and is now waving her hands happily to us?” Both Syd and Kristie turn their heads in sync when Carli mentions about Kelley. Both look back at Hope just in time to see her waving her hands back to acknowledge it. They start back their typing on the phone while grinning like a Cheshire cat that eats a cream. Hope ignores her friend’s stare and start to take out her phone pretending to look at some messages. 

Minutes later, she can hear Kelley’s laughter from a few tables ahead. She frowns when she notices that Kelley has stop at the rookies table. Currently, she is laughing at something that Morgan said while holding the 2 coffee mugs that dangerously looks going to be spills anytime soon. Just after she thought about it, she can see Kelley’s startled and flinch as the hot coffee spills on her hands. She started to get up and get to Kelley. 

But before she can make any moves, she saw Morgan has taken both mugs and put in on the table. She then takes her ice coffee and presses it against Kelley’s hurt hands. She talks softly to Kelley and Hope watches the defender smiles. The rest of the occupants at the table don’t even seem to notice that the defender is there. 

When Kelley turns and starts to make her way back to their table, she smiles when she sees how adorable the defender looks trying to balances the mugs carefully to avoid any further spills. She can see Kelley’s biting her lips in concentration and taking a slow step to them. When she hears Carli clearing her throat, Hope suddenly realized she is still standing and smiling at Kelley. She relaxes her face and takes few steps to Kelley to help her with the mugs. 

When she comes near, she can hear Kelley chanting to herself, “Don’t spill… don’t spill… don’t spill… ” Hope grins widely when she hears that. She waits until Kelley realizes her presence and looks up at the keeper.

“Hello, there. Do you need help? Ever heard of this thing calls tray? It is an object that helps bring foods or drinks and the person holding it doesn’t need to worries about spilling anything.” Hope smirked when she sees Kelley rolls her eyes. Hope took both mugs from her and starts to walk back to their table.

“Hey, kid.” Carli calls out when they reach the table. “How’s the hand?” Hope cursed inwardly. She had forgotten to ask about Kelley’s hand. She seems to forget everything when it comes to the defender.  
“It stings. I need somebody to kiss it better. That’s always works for me.” Kelley pouts. Hope can see Carli smirks from her place waiting for Hope replies but the keeper pretends to be busy on putting the mugs on the table. 

“Erm…. Where should I sit?” Kelley looks around for empty sit. When she found none, she pouts further. 

“Don’t you guys need to go somewhere?” Hope asked. Both Syd and Kristie whom until now still typing on their phones, looks up and simultaneously replied “No. Nope. Nuh, huh.” Carli looks on amuses.

“Never mind then. I can go sit with…” “No!” Hope bursts out before Kelley can finish her sentences. Everyone looks startles. Carli seems more amuse than before. 

“You can take my seat. I can stand. Plus you are hurt.” Hope explains quickly.

“She hurts her hands Hope. Not her legs. When did you learn to enjoy your coffee while standing? Is this a new year’s resolutions that I have not heard about?” Carli asked. She seems to purposely trying to embarrass Hope today. Maybe this is her revenge for earlier when the door nearly slams her face, Hope thought. She realizes that her mouth keeps opening and closing but no answer coming out from it.

Before the silence became too awkward, Carli sighs and continues on, “Okay, I think we can squeeze on this sofa then. I just hope it doesn’t break apart while three of us on it. We would be You Tube sensations with this 2 recording it.” She addresses the pair that stills grinning amongst themselves and still typing furiously on the phone.

Kelley just nods her head showing her agreements. Carli starts to move herself to the end of the sofa while Kelley just stands and wait for Hope to moves down in the middle. Hope’s doesn’t move as she notice that there is little space left for a 3rd person. Without further thinking, she just grabs the defender’s small waist and brings her down. She realizes that Kelley will be halfway settles on her laps and half on the sofa but she doesn’t mind. 

After Kelley squirms to find her comfortable spots, she let herself being held by the keeper. Hope looks up at her and inquires whether the seating arrangement is comfortable enough for the defender. Kelley nods again and just let her right arms to holds Hope’s shoulder.

“I don’t mind Hope. I know you will never let me fall.” She hears Carli snorting loudly beside her. She can even hear Lemew pairs laughing heartily in front of her. Her body starts to tense but when she feels the defender start to lean against her, she lets her body loosen. She doesn’t mind what others will say. This is actually normal for both of them. 

The team is no longer surprise with how close the keeper and the tiny defender. They just likes to makes fun of her as she is totally fierce when she is on the field. To see their keeper having such a soft side to her makes it easier for the team to tease her. Plus they know they can reason with or more specifically hides behind Kelley to avoid the keeper’s wrath.

“How are you guys going to drink the coffee that way? You know this girl is a monster if she doesn’t get her daily dose of coffee.” Carli asks while trying to hold her laugh.

“Don’t worry Hope. I order the same thing for us. That way, we can share and I can hold the cup for you.” Kelley smiles proudly. 

Carli knows her friend only drinks black coffee, while the defender likes to put lots of sugar and milk in hers. She can’t wait to see her friend’s response when she saw what the defender brings for her. She doesn’t think the keeper even realizes it yet even though she has been handling the mugs since they reach the table. 

When Kelley reaches forwards to get one of the mugs, she sees Hope’s eyes widen. Hope just realizes the type of coffee that Kelley bought hers. She turn her head to see that Carli smirking happily beside her. Before she can say anything, Kelley has brings back the mugs for Hope to tastes. She looks on happily as Hope taste the coffee. Hope can hear the click of a camera while she tries hard to relax her face before it scrunches in distastes. 

“Well? Is it okay? I like this one! I really hope you like it too.” Kelley waits for Hope’s replies. When she receives none, she starts to pouts. Hope swallows hard to make sure the sweet coffee goes through her throats.

“I like it, Kell.” Hope accidently slips the nickname out. “Just maybe you don’t put so much sugar or milk in mine because you know I like it black.” Kelley pouts further when Hope said that. She starts to stand up and move to take the one of the mug away.

“Where are you going?” She keeps her grip on the defender waist to stop her from standing up.

“You don’t like it Hope. So I want to go and change it for you. I will ask them to replaces it with your usual order. I just thought I can surprise you with something new.” Kelley looks down at her hand.

Hope suddenly feels guilty. She remembers that she asks the defender to surprise her earlier. And now when she got a different coffee from the one she always drink she rejects it. She knows she needs to correct this immediately.

“No..Kell. Maybe you are right. I shouldn’t say no to different type of coffee. You said you want to surprise me and you totally did! I’ll make sure I finish it okay?” She brings Kelley’s injured hand to her lips. 

Hope can see Kelley’s smile return to her face when she realizes Hope’s is kissing her hand better. Kelley brings back the coffee and takes a sip herself and leans back against Hope. Hope’s glad that she can appease the tiny defender easily.

“On that note, I think we are going to make a move. We have some reporting to do guys. See ya chica!” Syd suddenly jumps up and make a move to exit the café. Kristie just rolls her eyes and starts to follow her. 

Carli just shakes her heads at the pair antics. When she looks back at Hope she sees her staring lovingly at the young defender. This is the first time she sees her friend totally relax and smiling happily. She looks on as Kelley leans back at Hope shoulder while scrolling at Hope’s phone.

Carli can feel her eyebrows raises again. The keeper never let anyone touch her phone even just to put it away for safety. She remembers Hope’s once slaps one of the trainer hands away when he tried to keep it safe before the rains start. The trainer needs to go for a checkup as he strained it after being slaps by the keeper’s hand. 

Paul scolded Hope on it and she have to attend extra training for her punishment. Although Hope’s apologize later and makes it up to him by treating him and his girlfriend a night of exclusive dinner at a fancy hotel, nobody else dare to touch Hope’s phone after that.

Carli takes out her phone when she hears the incoming messages. She laughs when she saw what Syd’s messages is all about. It’s a picture of Hope’s tasting the coffee while Kelley holding it. Hope’s face clearly shows her displeasure as her face is scrunching tight while Kelley’s face remains oblivious on what happens to the keeper. The captions said ‘Death of a keeper by squirrel coffees?’ 

Carli shows the picture to Hope and Kelley and they both laughs on the caption. Kelley asks Carli to send copy of the picture to Hope’s phone. When Kelley looks back down to continue scrolling on Hope’s phone, Hope turns to Carli and start to discuss about their afternoon training while continue sipping her coffee. 

All three players pretend not to notices the two empty seats in front of them.


	3. Wake up calls

Hope startles awake when she hears a loud bang on the door. Then she hears Abby’s voices loudly shouting in the hall. 

“Breakfast is in an hour guys!! Better be ready! We have team building after that! Kelley!! You better wakes up on time!!” Hope can hear Abby’s banging on the door again before she’s moving down the hall.

Hope squint her eyes open. She’s not sure why Abby’s yelling at her room about Kelley. Maybe the forward is really getting old and confuse one player room with another. She starts to move up her body but suddenly realize that something is holding her down. Before she can panic she look down when she feels an arm hugging her tight on the waist. The hugger has a dark brown hair and wearing pajamas with some type of Disney cartoon character. 

Kelley. She remembers now. After their dinner last night, Kelley invited her to watch movie together in her room. As Morgan will be away to study Hope agrees without even thinking further about it. If she can spend more time with the small defender, she will never say no. 

When she reached Kelley’s room, she saw that the defender has change to her pajamas. She knows she suppose to get the hint when she saw the pajamas but she ignores it when she sees Kelley excitements on having someone to watch the movie with her.

After Kelley sets up her laptop for the movie, she brings two drinking bottle and few snacks to the bed and lean heavily against Hope’s shoulder. When the first pictures of castle and Disney signs come out, Hope knows she will be in for a long night. The defender has been praising the movie since it was aired last December and still keeps watching the same movie again and again.

“I know you have been roping all our friends to watch this movie since the start of the camp, Kell. I can even hear them telling you to stop singing the song repeatedly during practice.” Hope raised her eyebrows. Kelley looks down at her hands.

“You said you want to watch movies with me Hope. Nobody else wants to watch it with me again.” She pouted her lip further. 

Hope knows she has loses the battle as soon the pouts comes out. They watch the movie twice and by the end of the second movie ends, Hope even can sing along with the closing songs. Kelley laughs hard when Hope pretends to use the remote control as a microphone and they start to sing along the song together. The last thing she remembers after Kelley close the laptop is that she’s just lying down on the bed to rest and Kelley’s leaning in beside her.

Apparently, she’s falling asleep right after it. Kelley’s start to squirms and Hope’s holds the defender tighter to stop her from rolling off the bed. She can feel Kelley’s yawn on her shoulder. 

“Thank you for watching the movie with me Hope. Maybe we can watch it again tonight.” Kelley murmurs.

Hope smiles. She know she will never say no if Kelley asks her again. She can’t help but feel that the defender really looks adorable when she tries to wake up. She notices Morgan’s bed is empty. Either the rookie didn’t come back to the room last night or she has gone down for breakfast. Before she can say anything further, she saw messages from her roommate. 

Princess (12.05 a.m.):  
Don’t worry Hope. When you tell me you will be watching movie with the kid, I know you will not be able to resists watching Frozen.

Princess (12.07 a.m.):  
Don’t understand why you didn’t see that from miles away and gives excuses to avoid watching it.

Hope rolls her eyes when she read that.

Princess (12.10 a.m.):  
I know you will not be coming back to the room. I’ve asked Moe to come sleeps in our room last night.

Princess (12.15 a.m.):  
P/s: She said to tell you that Kelley’s will likely to fall back asleep after she wakes up. You may need to kiss her awake   
PP/s: Before you get mad, she never tried it before. She just kicked her off the bed ;) U may want to consider

Hope looks down at the defender. True enough while she’s reading the messages, Kelley has falls back asleep. She nudges Kelley’s awake. The defender just swats her hands away and continues snoring softly. Hope chuckles.

“Wake up Kell. We need to prepare for breakfast. You heard what Abby said just now.” She whispers

“I like you and I hate Abby you know. I really like you. Mmmm…I want to continue sleeping. Did I tell you I like you?” Kelley’s murmurs incoherently. 

“You better go down Miss O’Hara. You know I like to see you at breakfast before we go for training. I can even help get your favorite coffee ready when you come down. “

Kelley nods her head and start to make a move to the bathroom. Hope follows closely behind. She can see that Kelley’s walking with her eyes closes. She walks close to make sure the defender didn’t slip on any of the shoes discarded on the floor. Before Kelley reaches the bathroom, Hope pulls her closer to her body. She places few kisses the defender’s forehead and cheeks until she hear the defender laughs. 

“Now… are you awake enough to find your way? I’ll meet you downstairs okay?” She can feel Kelley’s nod her head on her shoulder.  
They hug one last time before Hope makes a move to the door. Hope can feel herself grinning widely while walking back to her room. She found Carli’s lounging on the bed while chatting with Morgan. 

“How’s you movie night? Anything you want to tell us? From the grin on your face I know it’s a good night.” Carli asks. Hope can see Morgan nods her head. 

“Yeap. You can ask me for tips too. I can download the lyrics for the songs that Kelley’s like on the movie. Then you can have a duet with her.” Morgan adds.

Hope looks surprised. The rookie apparently gained enough confidence to start joking around with the keeper. Hope’s know this is all her roommate doings. She smiles at the young midfielder. 

“No thanks. I’ve already knows the songs. Kelley has uploaded it to my phone as well. So, everything is A-okay”. She replies while walking to the bathroom. Both midfielders’ laughs out loud at her statement. 

She can hear Carli shouts “whipped” at the close door. Hope smiles further when she hears that.


	4. Snow fights

Hope shivered on the bench as she feels Denver’ cold wind breezes by. The temperatures become too low last night which resulted in snows covering the whole training ground. Currently, the whole team is waiting for the staffs to clear off the snow from the field. As most of the players were busy changing to their cleats, Syd and Pinoe are standing at the side whisperings amongst themselves while looking at Kristie. Hope knows just by looking at the two most mischievous players, Kristie will be wearing snow by the time the training ends. Hope just shook her heads. 

“Do you want to build a snowman…. Do you want to build a snowman….”

Hope looked up when she hear Kelley’s singing her favorite song. She saw the defender's singing and dancing to the song while Tobin capturing it on her phone. When Carli come out from the locker and walks pass the pair, she just slapped them both at the back of the head. 

The rest of the team and even Hope laughs when Kelley just stick her tongue at the midfielder’s back and just continue singing and dancing like nothing happens. Once the pair finished recording, they move to the bench together. Kelley started to make a move to Hope when she saw the keeper. 

“Hey….do you like my singing? You know I will be famous once Tobin uploads that in the internet. Maybe you should get my autograph so that you can sell it for a fortune in the future. What do you say?” Kelley asked 

“What…you don’t want to play in front of me anymore? You are leaving me Kell? If you’re famous then I need to find another left back to help me.” Hope said jokingly.

“NO….. You are mine, Hope and no one else.” Kelley hugs the keeper tightly.

“I am your best left back and you know it. You will miss me too much if I’m not there.” Kelley’s add.

Before Hope can reply, Tom, Paul and the rest of training staff comes out from the room. The keepers meet with Paul at the goal post while the rest of player huddles around in middle of the field. Seems Dawn will have them start the warm ups with faster pace due to the cold weather.

For the last 40 minutes, the keepers and the team have finished their warms up. Tom gives instruction to the team to play inside the lines with 8 vs 8. When Paul and Tom walk back to the locker, Hope took the opportunity to check on Kelley. She can see the small defender keep fidgeting on her spots and making a late start to chase the ball when it comes near her. The defender’s whole body seems so small to stand against the cold Denver air. When Dawn asks the team to stop for a water break, she quickly made a decision and calls up the defender to her side.

“Kelley! Come here for a second! Right now please!” Surprised Kelley turned abruptly after hearing Hope’s shouting voice. The keeper faces remain serious. 

“Ooooooo…. Someone is in a lot of trouble.” Pinoe commented. Ali, who is standing beside the defender, pats her back in sympathy. 

She’s not even on the same team as Hope and the keeper still want to scold her? If it is Jill that shouting, she can understand but not Hope. Kelley can feel her face wrinkled up. Even the rest of the team looks on confusedly while they walk to the bench to have a drink. She trudged back slowly to the keeper. Her brain keeps bouncing around thinking back on what she has done to anger the keeper. She cannot even come up with a single thing.

When she reaches Hope, she started apologizing.

“Hope, I’m sorry. I know I have not play my best. It’s just that it’s too cold and I cannot even feel my fingers. They distract me enough that I’m not marking people at the right time. That’s all. I will work harder, I promise!”

Hope just smiled. She takes out her gloves and passes it to the defender.

“I know, Kell. That’s why I want you to wear this. It will keep your palms warm.” Hope hug Kelley’s shoulder and start to walk together to the bench.

“I’m not mad Kell. I know it’s the weather. I’ve got spare that I can use later.” Hope explains.

Kelley suddenly turns and kisses place a quick kiss to the keeper’s lips. Hope can feel few pair of eyes from the bench staring at them both. She tried to holds her blushes; however when she hears Abby’s whistles out, she know the rest of the team has notice it.

“Hope and Kell sitting on a tree…K.I.S.S.I.N.G, first comes gloves then comes…” Pinoe and Syd start singing.

Suddenly, they were bombarded with a few snows coming from Tobin and Kristie. Before they can retaliate, Abby and Hope start to attack them with snows. When the team saw that their seniors also have joined in the snow fights, the rest is history. From an outsider view, it will look like they were no clear two teams that having a snow fight. Lots of snowballs were thrown around in the hope that it will hit somebody. While the staff walks around to put stop on the sudden snow war, Ali and Carli were just lounging on the side bench.

“They are all barbarians.” Carli said. Ali just nod her head while continue painting her nails. Carli rolls her eyes. And they call her princess? Krieger seems to be acting more like a princess than her. When she hears Hope’s laughs, she turns to the side of the field. It seems that Kelley’s was trying to return Hope’s snowballs attack with little success. Her colds hands cannot hold the snow tight enough and by the time she throws it at Hope, it just breaks apart before it reaches the keeper.

When Kelley starts to pout and stomp her feet, Hope smiles adoringly at the small defender. 

“Do you want to build a snowman?” Hope asks suddenly.

Kelley’s face lights up. She jumps up and down in excitement and start to run to the sideline to start her snow building process. When Hope follows Kelley’s from behind, Carli just chuckles quietly. Her friend totally shows her different side with that kid.

“She’s sweet to Kelley. Hope I mean.” Ali said without looking up from her nails. Carli nods her head. 

“Maybe it’s a keeper and defender thingy you know.” Ali said jokingly. This time Carli cannot hold her laughs back. Her laugh rings loudly across the field.

By the time Tom and Paul walks back to the field, the team has started its 2nd half of in the field training. Both didn’t comment on a pair of weird looking snowmen, one with a ball at his feet and the other wearing some kind of gloves which suddenly appears at the side of the bench. And when Paul saw Kelley’s wearing Hope gloves, he just shrugged it off. If questions were asked, Hope will just ignore him either way.


	5. Drama (Part 1)

Hope's startled when she feels arms squeezing the breath out of her body from behind. She knows its Kelley's signature affections to her. Hope grabs the hand on her waist and squeezed back acknowledging her. She didn’t think she needs the hug but after hearing about Tom's firing she can feel her body tensed since.

She doesn’t understand why USS decides to fire their head coach. The whole team are blindsided by it. Hope just scared this situation will break the team dynamics since Tom's took over. 

When she comes back to the room after the announcement, she doesn’t bother to talk to anybody on her way back. Once she reaches the room, she just stands quietly beside her bed. She hears the door open and assume it’s her roommate. She didn’t feel like talking just yet. She breathes a sigh of relief when she feels Kelley's arm around her.

"Let’s go to the bed, Hope." She can hear Kelley whispers quietly. Hope just nods her head and makes a move to the bed.

She lies back while the defender snuggles closely to her side. She can feel Kelley's hand caressing her side trying to calm her down. 

"I don’t understand Kell. We just won the game over China. Why can’t they just give him a chance!" Hope asks angrily. She feels her right hands clench tightly together.

Kelley didn’t say anything. She knows Hope will just tell her the real issue once she's ready.

"I feel like it’s my fault Kell." Suddenly Hope blurted out.

"No, how can you say that? We know they have made up their mind whether we lose or win." Kelley insists.

Hope just shakes her head. 

"We lose to Denmark, Kell. I've let in 5 goals and we got on the 7th place! It’s the worst result in Algarve history!" Hope replies angrily. She can’t help but feels it’s all her faults.

Kelley leans up and looks down at Hope's posture. The keeper remains rigid and avoids looking at her. She saw the hands clenched tightly at her side. Kelley's made a decision. She needs to build her keeper's confidence up again.

"Hey… why not we go to the field? I can asks the team to join and we can shoots balls at you all night and you can make sure it doesn’t goes in? What do you say? Then you know you are still the best out there." Kelley suggests. She holds Hope’s palms gently and tries to loosen the fingers which clench tightly together.

"It will not help Kell! It doesn’t change the fact that Tom is fired!" Hope shrugs Kelley’s hand and start to moves off the bed.

Kelley’s startles at Hope bursts and feels her heart breaks when the keeper just shrugs off her hands. She understand the keeper is feeling guilty but she can’t help but feels like Hope has build her wall back up. Even against her.

"I know it doesn’t changes anything, Hope. So maybe we try something different to let the steam off. We can’t keep thinking about the past. Tonight you can even have a free pass of shouting at me and I promise I'm not going to get angry." 

"Can you please stop acting like a kid! Everything is easy for you! You think by having a scrimmage all the problem in the world can be solves?!" Hope turns and glares at the defender. 

She immediately regrets her actions when she can see a flicker of hurt in Kelley's eyes. But she can’t think about the defender at the moment. She feels her world is turning upside down at the moment. She ignores the guilty feelings that creeping in. When Kelley still insists, she just shrugs her shoulder and moves to the bathroom.

"Meet you at the field." She lied. She just wants to get rid of the defender. Kelley nods her head eagerly and walks to the door. Before she closes the door, she made another plead to the keeper.

"I really hope you will be there, Hope. I will ask the rest of the team to join us as well. It will be fun!"

Once Kelley's left, Hope returns to her bed. Nobody understands what she's feeling. She intends to ignore the defender and switch off her phone. She doesn’t think Kelley will wait long before she realizes the keeper will never shows up. 

After an hour, Carli walks to the door. She can hear her roommate slams the door hard. She stomps to Hope's bed and just stared angrily at the keeper.

"You are stupid, you know that?!!" Her roommate blurts out.

Hope just rolls her eyes.

"What else is new princess? You want to scold me for not following Kelley's suggestion? Why would I want to play when I'm not in the mood? Nobody is the boss of me! Not you or the kid!" Hope shouts.

 

"Owh, now she's a kid huh? You are really selfish, Hope. That KID arranges for the team to meet at the field so that we can cheer you up. We know you feel guilty. But don’t be a bitch and take all the responsibility on your own. You are not the only one that loses the game! We are a team! We win as a team and we lose as a team!" Carli shouts back.

Before Hope can reply, Carli points her finger at Hope.

"I am not finish! That kid even asks the staff and Tom to meet us all in the field so we can have one last training together. But you… you decides you want to be pigheaded about it tonight! We all waited and still waiting for you! You better comes down now before I let Abby comes here and get you!" She throws her pillows at Hope and storms out the rooms.

Hope is shocked speechless. She knows she's making a big mistake now. She immediately stands up and runs out of the room. 

When she reaches the field, she can feel her teammate’s eyes staring at her. Every one of them is wearing their training gear. The younger players ignore her while the seniors looking at her angrily. Only Krieger and Cox is looking at her in sympathy. She clears her throats loudly.

"I’m sorry guys. I know I'm acting like a brat but I’m sorry again." Hope apologizes.

Nobody says anything and Tom's nudges Hope on the shoulder. She turns to see him nodding his head. Then Tom calls out for the plays to start and the team start to move for positions. She can see Kelley walking back towards the opposite field. She tries to call out Kelley's name but the defender doesn’t seem to hear her or just ignoring her.

Hope focus back on the game when the whistle blows. The environment is very grim. She knows her team members have not forgiven her for her attitude earlier. And it seems everyone in the opposing team is taking opportunity to shoot the balls at her and her defenders are not doing anything to stop it. 

When Syd's easily run pass Becky and made a shot towards Hope, she makes a dive to catch it but the balls hits her cheeks. She can feel the blood in her mouth and the stings on her cheeks. Everyone stops the play and looks on at Hope. Syd's comes closer to the keeper to apologize but Hope puts her hands up to show that she's okay.

"Our bitch keeper is okay, guys! She can still catch a ball! There will be bruise on your hard face tomorrow. By the way, I forgive you!" Syd calls out. 

Everyone in the team laughs and they start to play likes normal. All throughout the game Hope tries to catch Kelley's eye but the defender is avoiding it. Kelley plays hard even to the extent tackling Abby to the ground to get to the ball but never even makes eye contact with Hope when the keeper praises her. Kelley runs back to her side of field while Abby stand and dust her back and turns back to Hope.

"You know she's not in our team, right?" Abby questions the keeper.

Hope just shrugs her shoulder. When Tom whistles blows for the training to end, Hope try to catch Kelley amongst the player. However, she walks between Tobin, Pinoe and Moe and whenever Hopes comes close one of them will stop her advance. Seems they are the elected bodyguard for Kelley tonight. Carli walks close to Hope and just shakes her head. 

"You really need to do better than that. The kid really begs all of us to wait for you when we all just want to go back. You really need to grovel, Hope. I don’t know what did you say to her before but she looks sad when she comes to the field. She tried to fake her smiles Hope, but we know better." 

In the locker room, Tom gives his last instructions and wishes the team a good luck with the new coach. Not a dry eyes left in the room. Abby on behalf of the team thank him for his coaching and guidance. After that, each player lines up and hugs Tom goodbye. When it comes to her turn, Hopes hesitates.

"It’s not your fault Hope. Maybe I should be more direct in my coaching who knows. But, you shouldn’t blame yourself for it." Tom smiles understandingly. Hope really will miss his Scotland's accent.

Then the teams disperse to their own room. After shower, Hope quickly makes her way to Kelley's room. When Morgan opens the door and she just sigh when she sees Hope.

"She doesn’t want to see you, Hope." Morgan explains.

"But I want to apologize to her." Hope insists.

Morgan just shakes her head.

"Yeah… I know. She told me about what happen. I think we should let her sleep and rest." Morgan replies.

Hope nods her head. She walks back to her rooms. Her shoulders feel heavy with guilt. When she reaches her room she quickly took out her phone and texts Kelley.

To Kell (10.42 p.m.):  
Kell, I'm really sorry for earlier. I'm sorry about what I said. Please...Kell. Let me make it up to you.

Hope waits for her reply but none came. Carli's shot her a look when she sat on the bed but her roommate remains quiet.

"I’m sorry, Carl." She starts. "I know I’ve been selfish and pigheaded. I’m really trying to better myself." She continues. 

"It’s not that Hope. I know you like to push away people when they come close to you. But the kid really seems to like you for you. I don’t understand how you can just hurt her like that." Carli explains in disappointed voice.

When Hope hears it, she can feel herself tearing up. She looks down sadly at her hands.

"And if I didn’t even come to the room, you will still be here ignoring us. You don’t even consider how embarrass Kelley feels after she convince the whole team and staff to come but you don’t even shows up!"

She knows she's really making a big mistake with the small defender. She vows to herself to repair their relationship before the training camp ends.


	6. End of drama

The next day, during breakfast hopes waited for Kelley with her favorite coffee. But she cannot find her at all. When she asks Morgan, the midfielder just shrugs her shoulder and informs that Kelley already gone from her bed when she woke up this morning.

By the time they need to get to the airport, Kelley seems to be the last person getting on the bus. She sits beside Ali in middle of the bus and moves to the window seats. Once she settles down she wears her headphones and closes her eyes. Kelley doesn’t even spare her a glance. When Hope starts to make her way to the pair, Carli make a grab for her arms to stop her.

"No, Hope. She asks not to be disturbed. She needs some space now." She saw Syd and Kristie nods their head agreed from a few seats in front of her. Apparently the rest of the team has become overprotective of the defender.

Getting frustrated, Hope sit back down at the back of the bus. She texts Ali asking her to swap their seats. She can see Ali's talking softly with Kelley.

From Ali (9.45 a.m.):  
Kelley said to tell you no. Sorry Hope. Do you want me to talk to her?

From Hope (9.49 a.m.):  
Its okay. I think I need to do this myself.

Hope leans her head on the window looking at the view pass by. She needs help in this but she doesn’t think she can talk with Carli. Seems her friend still angry on how she treats Kelley.

Once they check in their luggage, Hope finds herself sitting in a coffee shop alone. Before she can think further, she dials her phone. When the voice grumbled out greeting Hope hesitates.

"You better have a good reason calling me Hope. I can’t lose my beauty sleep anymore. Ali will kill me if I'm late to the gym session again." Ashlyn greets. She didn’t know how but her girlfriend always knows when she was late for her session. She suspects its either Lori or Toni that spills the bean to the Spirit captain.

"I need help, Harris. Erm... I’m not sure whether you aware or not about what's happening here but I really need your help." Hope explains

"If this is about Kelley, Ali has already told me about it and she specifically said that I can't be involves."

"I'm..... Sorry to disturb you then. Goodnight.." Hope said in gentle voice. She couldn’t help but feel helpless at the situation she’s facing now.

"Hope, wait. Ali said for me not to be involves between you and Kelley. But she doesn’t say anything about me talking about certain squirrel with another keeper." Hope can hear the smiles in Ashlyn voice. She takes a deep sigh of relief.

“Harris, I don’t want you to be in trouble with Ali. Maybe I can ask another person for an advice.” Hope tries to back out.

“Hope, you already woke me up. Ali has a good heart. Yes she will be mad at first but she will not be mad at me long if she saw how happy the squirrels will be after she makes up with a certain keeper.” Ashlyn continues.

"Okay...Just to put it out there, I am not really an expert in a relationship. You know how many times I have screw up things with Ali. But if you really want it, you have to work hard for it. So my first question is, do you really want to be with Kelley?" Ashlyn starts.

Hope nods meekly. When she realizes Ashlyn will not see her she said in gentle voice.

“Yes. I really want to be with Kelley. She makes me want to be a better person when I am with her.” Hope said convincingly.

“If that is the case…let’s start with our plan. You need to write this down and please don’t tell Ali.” Hope agrees.

On their flight to the San Diego, Hope starts make a move on her plan.

Step 1: Get Kelley to notice her  
Hope made a few trips to the toilet as she will pass Kelley’s seats on her way. On her 5th trip to the toilet, she caught the flight attendant looking at her strangely. 

“Excuse me, are you okay? How many times you need to go? Do you have stomach virus or something?” she asked loudly.

“Oh...I’m okay. Don’t worry.” Hope replies.

Hope can feel her face burning red. This is not how she wants Kelley to notice her. She can hear Syd and Pinoe cackling loudly behind her. Hope shakes her head and moves back to her sit. Before she sits down, she caught the corner of Kelley’s mouth curls up. She feels excited. That’s the first reaction she gets from the defender for the past 2 days. 

She makes her second move when the flight landed.  
Step 2: Offering help to establish contact  
Hope saw Kelley has difficulties is holding her bags together. Her luggage keeps falling down from the trolley once she arranges it. Tobin tries to help but manages to tangle herself in between the luggage. Kelley stomps her feet when Tobin just gives up on untangling herself and just sit on the luggage. The keeper knows that Kelley like to pack her stuff squirrel whenever they go for a long trip so that she will not miss her home.

Hope makes her way to Kelley and starts to untangle Tobin from the mess and arrange the luggage carefully on the trolley. She then pulls the trolley against her own so that she can push both at the same time. Hope can see uncertainties clouding Kelley’s eyes when Hope start to push the trolley to the exit. Kelley reluctantly follows closely behind. They walk silently to the waiting van outside the airport.

Once Kelley’s bag placed at the back of the van, Hope starts to push her trolley on to the next van parked behind. She didn’t want Kelley to feel pressure on her presence. She can hear Kelley murmurs her thanks behind her back. Hope just nods her head and continues walking to the next van.

Step 3: Start the groveling process  
Hope makes arrangement to send flowers, chocolates and sweets together with a card saying how sorry she was to Kelley’s room twice a day. She also sends Kelley a text every time she was reminded of the defender. Some of her text consists of apologies and some is just rehashing the time they spend together. 

She knows Kelley has receives all her gifts as she saw the defender eat some of her sweets and chocolates during their team briefing. She even offers it to the rest of player, except for Hope. Ali confirms that the flowers sent is still saves in the room that she stays with Kelley. 

Hope still hasn’t received any replies from Kelley for her text and gifts. She’s tries to hide her worry on the last training day before the game day but she knows it shows on her face.

When she hears Carli’s shouting her name, she pulls her gaze from Kelley’s direction to see a fast ball coming towards her. Before she can avoid it, the balls hit Hope on the face. It hits the same cheek that was hit three days ago and this time it hurt worst.

Hope can feel her head spinning so she just lay down on the grass hoping it stops. Hope starts to stand up slowly but she starts to fell back down when her head feels dizzy. She hears Abby calls for the trainer and Hope closes her eyes to stop the sun from shining to her eyes. It hurt and she feels exhausted. The effect of losing sleep for the past few days is catching up with her.

Hope leans heavily against the trainer shoulder and walks slowly to the medical room. They give her a couple of painkillers for her headache and ask her to rest for the rest of the day. Dawn brings her back to her room and she settles down heavily on the bed and goes to sleep.

When she opens her eyes, she sees the room has darkened. She knows she has missed their team briefing in the afternoon. She looks down curiously when she saw a brown hair splayed across her shoulder. It takes a few seconds for Hope to realize that Kelley is sleeping peacefully on the keeper side. One of her arm is hugging the keeper close to her body.

When she feels the arm squeezes her suddenly, it pulls Hope from her adoring stares. It takes all Hope’s willpower to not pull the defender closes. Although she misses the defender’s hug, she doesn’t want to scare her. She distracts herself by counting 100 backwards.

“Hope, I know you awake. I can feel your breathes changes.” 

“You missed dinner. So I brought sandwich for you. Though I personally think it tastes bland.” Kelley jokes. Hope takes a deep breath. She waits for Kelley to say more but when she didn’t Hope start to sit up and leans against the headboard. 

“What are you doing here, Kell. I thought you are still mad at me.” Hope questions.

“I’m scared, Hope. When you didn’t get up after the ball hits your head, it worries me. Don’t ever scare me like that again! But it doesn’t mean that I’m not mad at you still.” Kelley pulls her bottom lips to her mouth. Hope smile. She can’t help but think that it’s oddly endearing behavior from the defender.

“I know..Kell. I know I have a lot of making up to do, Kell. But, if you give me a chance, I will try my best to make sure I will never hurt you again.” Hope insists.

Kelley tilts her head staring deeply into Hope’s eyes. She nods her head in Pinoe’s directions.

“I should ask Pinoe to be my witness.” Kelley says jokingly.

Hope suddenly realized that her roommate is sleeping peacefully and undisturbed on her bed. 

“So you just need to finish one more steps before you can hug and kiss me properly?” Kelley asks.

Hope is surprised. She didn’t think anyone will know about her conversation with Ashlyn.  
“How…how did you know about that?” Hope asked hesitantly. She’s scared Kelley will be mad at her for this.

“You know Ash cannot keep anything from Krieger right. That girl is so whip she will blurt anything when Ali raised her eyebrows.” Kelley smirked

“Plus, she does the same thing when she is in trouble with Ali.” Kelley’s giggles quietly.

When Kelley didn’t stop giggling, Hope starts to join her. She’s sure that Harris now is in a lot of trouble once Ali comes back to DC. When she was distracted in thinking of ways to get back to her fellow keeper, Hope suddenly feels Kelley’s lips on her cheek. It leaves a tingling sensation to her body.

“There…I make it better for you.” Kelley grins happily. When she starts to lean up for a hug and another kiss, Hope pushes Kelley back softly on her shoulder. When Kelley pouts and starts to moves off the bed, Hope grabs her waist.

“No…Kell. You need to make me do the last steps. Let me complete the tasks of earning your trust and affections back.” 

*Cough*Party pooper*cough* Hope hears Pinoe whispers to the room. She looks over to see that her roommate are sitting up wide awake and watching them both while grinning widely.

Hope throws her pillows at Pinoe and starts to chase her roommate around the room. Kelley laughs heartily when Hope tackles the midfielder to the ground and sits on her. While Pinoe struggles to push the keeper of her back, Kelley pulls out her phone and takes picture of the pair. She sends it to her roommate, Ali.

To Ali (10.10 p.m.):  
Hey…we are okay… You should consider letting Ash off the hooks. 

Few minutes later, she receives a reply

From Ali (10.14 p.m.):  
Nah…I will let her suffer first*insert evil laugh* by the way, congrats on the dinner date. Let me know when you want to go shopping.

Kelley laughs when she reads the text. She looks down on the scribbled note on the bedside table with Hope’s handwriting.

Step 4: Talk about what happen over dinner date. Tell her everything, especially about your fears.

P/s: If she refuses invitations for dinner, repeat steps 3 until she does.  
P/p/s: If she’s forgiven you, she will give you a goodnight kiss.

Hope doesn’t know it yet. But Kelley plans to gives her favorite keeper goodnight kisses and hugs for all the flowers, texts and the gifts that she received.


	7. Pro Club

Hope stretches her body. She takes a deep breath. The Seattle air she breathes in reminds her that's she's home. She stands on the deck looking out to the Seattle view while slowly sipping her favorite coffee. It has been two weeks that they have gone back home. After the winning of 2nd game against China they are back to each respective clubs to start NWSL games. 

It means she will only see Kelley on the next match against Sky Blue or the next training camp in May. Their dinner date has gone very well. Hope apologizes again for her behavior and they talk about everything that night. By end of the date, she truly believes that both of them have reached a different level of understanding of each other. Kelley also hugs and kisses her goodnight which confirms that she has truly forgiven Hope. Hope sighed loudly. She really misses her small defender.

Hope hears her phone rings. She quickly walks to her room to pick it up before it went to voicemail.

"You are getting old, Hope. I count 5 rings before you pick up."

Hope smiles when she hear her caller voice. It's been their little game every time any one of them calls the other. 

"I remember last time 3 of my calls went to voicemail. What does it say about you, huh?" Hope asks jokingly.

She can hear Kelley's laughter rang across the phone. She likes to make the defender laugh.

"Hey! That's because I was in the shower okay!" Kelley tries to defend herself.

"Yeah, one because you are in the shower, then after that you said it’s because you forgot to bring it with you and last excuses is that you trying to catch a bunny that looks like a squirrel." Hope shakes her head. Sometimes Kelley do came up with outrageous reasons or excuses.

"The last one is true! It runs across our training field okay. I'm only helping Rylie and Reece to catch it." Kelley explains.

Hope chuckles quietly. She wishes she was there to see Kelley chasing the bunny around.

"By the way, how's your head? Is it getting better?" Kelley asks worriedly.

Hope touches the side of her head gently. During last week scrimmage, one of the players elbows her on the head while trying to get to the ball. It leaves quite a nice bump on her head.

"Still feels tender. Don't worry its only and small bump to the head. I even went for the MRI scan like you insist and the results are fine. Laura said I can still play this weekend." Hope tries to placate the defender.

"You better not lie to me, Hope. I've asked Pinoe and Syd to keep an eye on you. If you're lying I will personally go there and make you go for the scan." Kelley says seriously.

Hope sighed. Seems there is no room for argument with Kelley. Once Hope tell her about her accident with the other player 2 days ago, Kelley kept insisting for her to go for MRI scan even though she already get the green light from the medical staff. Her last stumble during the camp has made the small defender become more protective whenever Hope is involves in any scuffles during a game. 

"I really went for the scan, Kell. I'm not going to lie or break my promise to you. I can even give you the scan if you like. Or do you want the doctor's number?" Hope asks testily.

"Erm... No need. I trust you. I just wish I was there to kiss it better. I'm sorry if I'm overreacting. I'm just worried. That's all." From her voice, Hope knows the defender is pouting.

"I'm sorry too, Kell. You can kiss it better when we meet for our next game. You can even request piggyback ride after your teams loses to mine." Hope tries to distract Kelley with her trash talks and it works.

"Hahaha…There’s no way! I have Captain America on my side. You only have the 2 stooges on yours. I will make sure I can get a score on you! I know where all your weakness spot, Hope. We trained together remember?" Kelley challenges.

"Owh... You think you can even get to the ball pass my defender? Think again, Kell. I've trained them to follow my instructions. You'll be mark throughout the game. Plus, I don't think your middie friend; Sophie can even keep the ball long enough before she stumbles on her own two feet." Hope replies.

Hope doesn't feel guilty of talking down about the Canadian player. Hope is jealous of the midfielder as she has the opportunity to spend more time with Kelley whereas she was stuck in Seattle. They even get together for a coffee at Kelley's favorite cafe. 

Oh....and she saw Kelley's and Sophie's Intagram picture. When she calls her friend and rants out her frustration, Carli call her a stalker but she doesn't care. Kelley is hers! But when Hope starts to feel sorry about herself, Carli suggested for Hope to call the defender up.

It starts with her calling Kelley once a day but it escalates to twice or thrice a day depending on how busy each of them is. The defender doesn't seem to mind and even calls her back whenever she missed Hope's call. In between, they will texted each other between discussing about their activities for the day or anything that they can think of.

"Hahha… Yes. That’s Sophie. Isn't it adorable though? Now I know I'm not the only clumsy one in the team." Hope rolls her eyes when Kelley continues talking about Sophie. Sometimes the defender is very oblivious to the fact that Sophie likes her.

Hope can see it from afar. Even from the way Kelley explains their day together, it seems the girl is trying to get Kelley's attention. Even to the extent of taking the picture of a coffee and calls it her favorite. And it’s the same coffee that Kelley likes so much. She suddenly hears Kelley calling out her name. 

"If you are not listening to me then I think we should stop." Kelley said petulantly.

"Wait! Wait Kell. Just my mind wandering that’s all. I'm....I miss you, Kell." Hope explains

"Awh... I miss you too, Hope. You don't know how much. Even Sophie said I talk about you a lot." 

Hope smiles gleefully. If Kelley talks about her with Sophie, surely the girl will get the hint. She knows she was teased a lot by her teammates when she keeps calling her club defenders by Kelley's name during their scrimmage. Laura even glued each of defenders face and name on her locker to avoid confusion.

"Hey, I need to go okay. Captain arrives already. We are going to train for 5 miles today." 

For past few days, Kelley has been helping their captain train to get back on shape after spraining her toes last camp. But Hope really suspect that she just use that as an excuse to play with Riley and Reece during the session. 

Sure enough an hour after they say goodbyes, she received few pictures from the Captain. One of it picturing Kelley lying side by side with the girls on the floors with each of them holding a crayon and coloring on a princess book. The captions reads, 'trainer for mom or kids?'

Hope laughs out loud. Although the defender is acting childishly, Hope knows Kelley do keep track of their Captain’s progress and updates Dawn regularly. At least she is not having a coffee break with the Canadian player, Hope thinks.


	8. visiting Friend

Hope stands still leaning against a tree while looking out to the field. She saw the players’ huddles in middle of the field while listening to the coach's instructions. When the team starts to disperse and makes their ways to the bench, she saw few children running on to the field. As nobody seems to be disturbed by it, Hope believes this is not a rare occurrence. Some of the players even engage the small children for a game of tag. 

Hope looks down at her watch as she starts to make her way back to the car. Laura has been giving the team a time off for an Easter celebrations. As Hope never celebrates any kind of holiday, she takes the opportunities to drive out of town to visit her friend. 

She has been driving for 3 hours when she passes by the soccer field. There was a team playing and she decides to stop and watch the game for a while.

She feels the needs to recharge her energy and when she saw the cafe near the field, she stops her car for needed coffee breaks. Once she ordered and takes a seat by the window, Hope tries to hide the yawns behind her hands while scrolling through her phone. 

Hope has sent a text to Carli before she starts her 3 hours journey. She knows Carli will only see her messages once she wakes up. She still remembers when she first inform her friend of her intention to make the journey with a car, Carli just laughs at her. She doesn’t think the keeper can stand to be coop up in the car for more than one hour. Hope really wishes for Carli to see her now.

While sipping her coffee quietly, she quickly sends a text to Kelley. Hope rolls off the tension from her shoulder. Her early journey this morning does takes a lot of her energy and she can feel the exhaustion creeping in. She hears her phone beep for incoming messages.

From Kell (11.35 a.m.):  
Hey.... Just finishes my shower... glad to see your text. You make to your friend okay?

To Kelley (11.37 a.m.):  
Reached town safely. Getting a coffee to recharge. When I don't feel like zombie anymore, will find hotel soon.

From Kell (11.43 a.m.):  
Make sure you don't drive when you sleepy, okay. If you need me to talk your ear off to avoid from being sleepy just call me *wink*

From Kell (11.46 a.m.):  
Call me when you get to the hotel.

When Hope read the last sentence, she hears a commotion in front of the cafe. Apparently, some of the players she watched earlier have stopped by the cafe as well. She stares at the pair near the counter. While the one with brunette hair orders her coffee, her friend is looking at her adoringly while trying to start a conversation. The brunette just nods her head and looks down on her phone and Hope shakes her head at the poor attempts. Before she can thinks further, she hears her name being squealed by 2 little girls.

"Hope! You came!" Both girls start to run to her.

When the brunette heard Hope's name, she turns quickly towards the keeper direction. Hope grins widely when she saw the brunette's shocked face and starts to jogs up to her. She crouchs down just in time as both Reece and Riley reaches her and hugs her neck tightly. When she stood back up she saw Kelley stands directly in front of her. 

"You are here.." Kelley whispers. Hope nods her head. 

"But you said you are visiting a friend."Hope chuckles.

"Aren't you my friend? My closest friend.." Hope asked hesitantly. Maybe she should call firsts. Maybe the defender has her own plan already.

"Hey, don't worry. I can go back if you have plans. I just thought I want to surprise you, thats all."

Kelley shakes her head and Hope can feels her heart dropped. Before she can turn around, Kelley jumps and hugs the keeper tightly to her body. Hope squeezed back as she really misses the defender. She takes a deep breathes and smiles when she smells the familiar shampoo. 

She can feel her body totally relaxing. She doesn't know how long they have been hugging when suddenly she hears a cough beside them. Kelley leans back but didn't relinquish her holds on the keeper while she glares unhappily at the intruder. Her gaze softens when she realizes it’s one of her teammate. 

"Hope, this is Sophie. Soph, this is Hope." Kelley introduces. Hope feels her eyebrow rise up when she hears Kelley using the Canadian pet name. Although they have been playing against each other for many times, Hope doesn't think they ever strike up any conversation before. 

When Sophie put her hands in Hope, she cannot resist to squeezes it a bit harder. When she saw the flinch, she quickly let the hands go feelings satisfied. 

"Erm....Kell, here. You forgot your coffee." She trusts the cup to Kelley. When Kelley seems reluctant to release her hold from Hope, the keeper took the initiatives of taking it from the midfielder hand.

"Thanks." Kelley mumbles out. When Kelley didn't say anything further, Hope can see the dejected faces Sophie made before she quickly covers it. She made her way back to the line at the counter. 

Hope looks down when she feels Kelley squeezing her tightly on her waist. She saw Kelley brown eyes staring at her deeply.

"I miss you so much, Hope. I really wish for you to be here."

"I miss you to Kell. Come, let’s sit down. I'm still a bit tired from my drives." Hope explains.

When she sat down, Kelley scrambles to sit on Hope's lap. Hope smiles happily when she feels Kelley put her head on the crooks of her shoulder. Kristie and Jill comes by to the table to catch up with Hope while the rest of the team when back to their respective home. 

"How long will you be here, Hope?" Jill asks.

"Well it depends on how long this girl wants me to be here." Hope explains in joking manner.

"I want you to be here for a long.. Longest time! Maybe you shouldn't go back to Seattle." Kelly insists.

The rest of the occupants at the table laugh. When Rylie and Reece start to yawn, they make a move to go back. Hope knows she'll be the one to drive her defender back home as she was still hugging the keeper tight when they come out from the cafe.

"Are you still going to the hotel? You should just come to my house. You can stay in my room, Hope. Pleaseeeee.." Kelley begs.

Hope agrees easily. She knows Kelley is staying in a 2 bedrooms apartment. However, during the NWSL season Kelley will share her house with few of the abroad players. This time around she knows Sophie is one of them. Easy for her to keeps an eye on the Canadian. They are too slick to be trust, Hope reasons out.

When they reach Kelley's apartment, she was introduce to the other 2 of her roommates. They have a small conversation getting to know about each other. Mostly they just make fun of Kelley. She notices Sophie's glares silently at her from the other side of the table but Hope ignores it. If she wants the keeper to feels intimidates, she can think again. After a while, Hope can feel her eyelids slowly start to drop.

Hope feels a small tug on her hand when Kelley pulls her towards the bedroom. She stop when she saw Kelley's unmade bed. 

"Sorry.. I'm in a rush this morning. Didn't have time to make up the bed." Kelley blushes red. She knows how much the keeper hate the mess. She starts the make the bed when Hope just grabs her hand.

"No Kell, it's okay. I just need to sleep right now. Come here please." Hope tugs Kelley on the bed. 

While Hope settles back down into the pillows, Kelley leans closer to her side. Hope gently nudges her face upward placed a soft kiss on her forehead and lips. When Hope starts to pull back, Kelley circled her arms around the keeper's neck and tug the keeper down to continue kissing her. Both of them are out of breath once they stop. 

"I've wanted to do that since I saw you." Kelley whispered. 

Hope nods her head while trying to stifle her yawn. She can feel Kelley warm hand caressing her side slowly and it lulled Hope to sleep. The last thing she heard was Kelley voice singing her a lullaby.


	9. Start of something

Hope eyes flicker open then closes back down. She turns to her side and snuggle her face at the back of Kelley's neck. She smiles when she hears Kelley's giggles rang out. 

"Hey..." Hope softly greets. She squeezes the defender close to her body and place a kiss on her shoulder.

"Hey...Are you hungry? I know I am." Kelley turns her body towards Hope. 

"And you stink! I think you should go get a shower while I cook for you." When Hope just raises one of her eyebrow, Kelley sighed.

"Okay...while I attempt to cook or orders in food. Everything is inside the bathroom. Do you prefer anything?"

"Anything, Kell. I feel like I can eat anything. Let me go freshen up." She starts to stand up. Suddenly there's a loud slap sound in the room. Hope turns to see Kelley stifling her laugh.

"Did you just slap my butt?" Hope asked while taking a few steps towards the defender. 

Kelley shakes her head while slowly walking backwards to the bedroom door. When Hope jumps to catch her, Kelley squels and make a run to the door. She can hear the defender laughs loudly in the hall.

"You still stink!" Kelley shouted.

When Hope came out from the shower, she makes her way to the kitchen. Hope was startled when she saw Sophie sitting at the kitchen counter while staring dreamily at the defender. 

Sitting beside her, Kelley really seems oblivious to the stares as she's trying to solve the puzzles section on the newspaper. When the midfielder suddenly leans her body against Kelley pretending to read the puzzles as well, Hope made her presence known to the other two.

"What did you order, Kell? I'm hungry enough that I can eat a horse." Hope said loudly. 

Both players turn at the sound of her voice. One face looks angrily at her while the other looks very excited. Hope ignore the laser beams eyes and standing face to face with Kelley.

"I've ordered Chinese. I know you like sweet and sour chicken so I think that’s the best bet."

"How about you, Sophie? Do you want join us?" Hope asked. She saw the surprised on the midfielder's face when she put her arms around Kelley's shoulder. If it makes her seems all possessive she doesn't care. 

"Erm...no. I'm going out to the cafe with Caitlin soon. You want me to bring back the blueberry muffin from the cafe, Kell?" Sophie smirked when she saw the keeper's brow furrowing. She feels proud that she knows Kelley's favorite muffin. She doesn’t think the keeper care about what Kelley likes or dislikes.

"Oh…I'm not…erm no. It's okay." Kelley looks at Hope sheepishly. She tries to avoid looking at keeper's eye.

Hope knows how much Kelley likes to eat the dessert. Once, Kelley ate too much of the muffin after their meals and starts to throws up during their training. While she got attended by the trainer, she vows never to eat another muffin again. 

When Sophie and Caitlin left, Hope turns to look at Kelley. She can see the defender fidgeting on her seats. 

"What happen to I will never eat another muffin again?" Hope mocks. 

Kelley dips her head down and pouts her lips.

"But it’s so good! You should try it!" 

Hope drops the subject when she sees how sad Kelley looks.

"Hey, I'm just joking." She pokes her on the stomach and hugs her waist. She squeezes the defender affectionately. She can't seem to help her desire to at least touch any parts of the defender. 

Kelley relaxed back against Hope on the couch after their meals. As Hope still feels exhausted after her long trip, they decide to just stay in for the rest of the day. Kelley playfully wriggled her toes against Hope. Hope retaliates by biting her neck. Kelley laughs out loud. She likes it when the keeper relaxes and being open like this. 

When the front door opens, Kelley can feels Hope body tensed up. She reached down to squeeze Hope's thigh to calms her down. Caitlin walks pass to her room and gives a wink to Kelley.

Hope can see from the corner of her eyes that Sophie has taken a seat on the other couch. She glared angrily at the keeper. Hope just rolls her eyes. She impressed with herself in how much patience she have. Before Kelley, that glares will easily provokes her to stand up and fight. 

She nuzzles her nose on Kelley's neck when Sophie starts conversation with her. Kelley giggles and slowly takes Hope's palm to kiss it without missing a beat. Hope smirked behind Kelley's head. She looks on as Sophie glance at the direction of Kelley's hand which clasped together with Hope. 

"When are you going back, Hope?" Sophie asks suddenly. 

"I believe you have a game with Washington Spirit next Wednesday right?" Sophie challenges.

Hope firms her holds on the defender. Internally she's panicking.   
She knows she got no claims on Kelley and she don't trust that the girl will stop her advance once she went back for Seattle. 

She starts devising a plan in her head. She only got 3 days to convince Kelley to go back with her. As ridiculous as it sounds she don't think she can survived if Kelley suddenly lose interests in her.


	10. Middle of something

Hope stirs the coffee. She knows the sugar has been dissolves long time ago but she just need to do something with her hands. Looking at her slump shoulder and miserable face, nobody will believe she was the best goalkeeper in the world at the moment. When Jill walks into the cafe and makes her way to Hope, she just see a very depress looking woman sitting alone staring at her coffee. 

She clears her throat when she reaches near her fellow keeper so as not to spook her. When Hope looks up she smiles sadly.

"Thanks for coming, Jill. I've really mess up this time." Hope dipped her head.

Jill takes a seat across Hope. 

"Okay, tell Auntie Jill everything, honey." Jill jokes. But Hope just looking down at her coffee dejectedly.

"Is this about Kelley?" Jill asks directly. 

Hope looks up and nods her head. She thinks back to her fight with Kelley this morning. When she saw Sophie kissing Kelley's cheek during breakfast, her blood boils. Yes, Caitlin also does the same on the other cheek but the girl didn't try to steal Kelley from her dammit. 

Since the day she arrives, Sophie likes to disturb their alone time. When Kelley doesn't seem to mind, Hope feels her anger multiply. Once the pair left them alone, Hope blurts out her plans.

"Come to Seattle with me, Kell."

Kelley eyes widen. Of course she likes to visit her keeper in Seattle when she has the time and she tells Hope the same. But the keeper just shakes her head.

"That's not what I meant. What I meant was moves out to Seattle with me. I've plan everything for us. I've also talked to Laura to let you join our team. She will see how she can arrange for it either by trade or something." Hope explains. 

She already makes a call to Laura last night and although the head coach didn't promise anything, Hope is not worried. She's given her coach an ultimatum. Either gets Kelley in the team or the team will lose her. She knows the team cannot afford to lose her.

"In meantime, you can stay with me. I have a big house and you can choose any of the 4 rooms available. We will not be stepping on each other toes." Hope rambles on. 

She notices Kelley's eye getting bigger and bigger by the time she finishes her sentences. Kelley suddenly stands up and glared at the keeper.

"Oh... When you make all this plans, where am I in the equation?" She asks angrily.

Hope frowns. She really thought Kelley would be happy that Hope comes up with the idea. She doesn’t understand why Kelley will be mad if they can be together.

"What do you mean? If we stay in the same city then we can spend time together everyday like what we always talk about. Or do just pretend you want it?" Hope asks quizzically.

"Argh!!!! How can you made this decision without telling me first? As it involves my life, shouldn't I have a say in the matter?! What about my family? What about my team?!" Kelley shouts at her.

Hope is stump. She didn't think that far. She thought the defender will be excited to stay with her. Hope can feel herself beginning to get mad. She makes this entire plan just to be rejected by the defender. Kelley doesn't even think about the plan before rejecting it blindly. Hope attacked back.

"You don't even think about it! That's why I made the plan for the both of us!" Hope shouts back. 

"I know why you don't want to leave here. It's because of Sophie, isn't it! I should have known. You like her! That’s why you've been spending your time with her! Getting a coffee and muffin together....." Hope said harshly. She can feel her jealousy creeping back.

Kelley looks surprised.

"Whaaattt…. you are being ridiculous right now! Of course we went together! She's my housemate!" 

"Owh... Now she's your housemate but don't tell me you don't realize she likes you more to be more than that! Please.... No one is that oblivious!" 

Hope turns and walk outs. She slammed the door hard. She hears Kelley's shouting her name but she ignores it. She droves off angry. 

She recounted about what happen to Jill. Jill listens without giving any comment. Once Hope stops talking, Jill takes it as a sign for her to talk.

"Hmmm.... I'm not sure how to phrase this. But Carli once told me you like people to be honest with you. Listen.....You are a.... DUMBASS!" 

When Hope just glares at her, Jill laugh heartily.

"You are just jealous!! That's the key of it!! Rather than talk to Kelley about it, you made a plan for her to move away from her home and team." Jill said disappointedly.

"Kelley is crazy about you. She's been talking about you nonstop. I don't think she even realizes how smitten Sophie is with her when she was distracted by only you. Both of you are so close that people mistaken you for a couple already!" 

Hope sighed. Carli already warns her about it. She just scared that Kelley will rejects her if she asks.

"If that's true then why did she let Sophie keep getting close to her?"Hope asks sadly.

Jill shakes her head. Her friend is really stubborn sometimes. 

"News flash, Hope. That's what we call being friendly. You know how Kelley is. She is playful and friendly with anyone. Are you going to be jealous if I'm getting close with her?"

Hope raised her eyebrow and gives Jill the death stare. She can feel her hands clenched the cup tightly.

"Depends. Do you plan to steal her away from me?"

Jill put up her hands. She didn't need to know how angry the keeper is. She can see from the grip Hope made o the cup; she has reach the limit already. She does want to lives longer for her next game.

"Go back, Hope. You need to talk to her." Hope relaxed her body. She knows Jill's meant well. She nods her head agrees.

When Hope reaches Kelley's house, she just sat in the car trying to come up with an explanations. Suddenly the front doors open and Hope saw Kelley glaring hard at her. As Hope still doesn't make a move to get out from the car, Kelley quickly storms to the car and wretch the car doors open. 

She tugs the keeper firmly on the wrist and starts to pull her back to the house. Hope follows closely behind as Kelley continues storming to her room.

Kelley pushes Hope on the bed and start pacing in front of her.

"I have never cursed so much in my life before I met you. Ohh.... Don't get me wrong, I can curse like a pro. But never to the same person!" She starts

"You can be so loving and open at one time and so angry and close off at another! The way your mood changes, its gives me a whip splash!"

"Then you made this sudden decision to just arrange my life overnight. What kinds of person do that?" Kelley’s voices rising.

"A jealous person..." Hope whispered. 

Kelley stops her pacing.


	11. That Something

Kelley frowns while her mind reeling’s fast. How did they go from talking about moving to Seattle to feeling jealous? She doesn’t see any relations between the two at all. She takes a deep breath.

"Why are you jealous?" Kelley asked. Even though she got the hint during their shouting match earlier, she still wants the keeper to explain her behavior.

"You are beautiful person, Kell. Both inside and out. There's so much beauty that people can't help to want to get close to you. One day, you will realize that I'm not worth all this trouble and forgets about me." Hope says sadly. She looks down on her clasped hands between her knees.

"What are you talking about? I thought we have discussed this before. I'll never forget about you. I've cannot handle more than one bitchy keeper, remembers?" Kelley tries to lighten the mood.

"That’s what I mean, Kell. You shouldn't need to handle me. I should be able to know what you want. We argue earlier because I thought you wanted what I want."

"Hey, that's not fair. I like to be your friend and I do want to be closer with you. But we need to think about this decision carefully. I can't just decide to move to Seattle without talking to my family and teammates." Kelley insists. Before Hope can reply she continues.

"But... I really don't want to move at the moment Hope. I like the town and the team. Maybe we can visit each other when we have free time." Kelley urges the keeper.

She can hear Hope sighed dejectedly. 

"You still haven't answer my question, Hope. Why are you jealous? Did I do anything to bring this on?" Hope clenched her hands tightly together. 

"You call Sophie by her pet name and you let her call you Kell. That's what I always call you." Hope whispered quietly.

This is by far the furthest thing from what the defender suspect. Calling her pet names? That’s the main problem?

"You know you don't own that pet names do you? Plus I call everyone in the team by their pet names. Soph, Cait and even Cap. Easier for me to shout for the balls I guess. It doesn't have any special meaning." Kelley reasons out.

When she hears it being said out loud, it does sound stupid and Hope feels embarrassed.

"And... you always go to your favorite cafe, taking pictures together. She kisses you on the cheek and I know for a fact that she likes you! I hate that I can't do all that with you and I really hate that Sophie always here with you!" Hope adds. 

She knows she's being unreasonable, but she remembers Jill advice for her to tell Kelley everything. She hopes the defender will not make fun of her feelings. She felt quite raw and vulnerable talking about her feelings likes this.

"I'm sorry if you feel this way. She's just a friend, Hope. Just like us." Kelley starts. 

Hope feels her heart break into million pieces when she hears that. Just a friend. Her eyes start to tears up. She opens her heart and still loses her. Hope stands up and starts to pack her bag. She needs to get away fast.

She moves around the room to grab her shirts and put in the bag. She wishes she can turn back the time and forgets about the whole thing. She doesn’t dare to turn around and face the defender to hide her teary faces.

"But I want it to be more between us, Hope. I'm just waiting for a certain bitchy goalkeeper to ask me to be her girlfriend. I'm hoping she can ask me soon so I can give her a proper reply." Kelley suddenly said from behind her.

Hope turns around feeling shocked.  
She sees Kelley is grinning widely at her. She comes closer and wipe the tears on Hope cheek.

Hope traces her gazes from Kelley's neck to her freckled faces slowly.  
When Hope makes eye contact with Kelley, she's surprise to see Kelley's staring at her lovingly.

Hope hearts starts to beat fast. She feels her palms starts to sweat. She's scared she will screw it up. Then she will lose Kelley forever. But when Kelley bites her lips nervously, Hope realizes she's not the only one scared. They are going to be in uncharted territories but Kelley willing to risks it. Hope quickly made her decision.

"Will you be my girlfriend, Kell?" Hope asks in clear voice. She don’t want the defender to be mistaken about her intention.

Kelley eyes are tearing up. She nods her head excitedly and hugs the keeper's neck tight.

"YES! Yes! A thousand time yes!" Kelley answers happily.

Hope chuckled out loud. She felt all the stress in her body being lift out. They walk to the bed and lies down together. Hope holds Kelley close to her side. She want to shout to the roof announcing to the world that she have a girlfriend now.

Kelley nuzzled her face to the keeper's neck and places a kiss there while playing with the bottom of Hope's shirt. She nudges Kelley's head to face her, then she moves her head closer.

"I want to kiss my girlfriend, now." She whispers.

Kelley grins and nods her head. She can't help but chuckles on how cheesy it sounds. But the defender soon forgets about everything once she felt Hope's soft lips touching hers. 

Hope doesn’t know how long they have been kissing when suddenly they hears a loud rumbling sound. They laughed out loud when they realize the sound comes from Kelley stomach.

"I'm hungry, Hope. You need to make it up to me because I didn’t finish my breakfast this morning." Kelley pouts.

Hope kisses the defender's forehead lovingly before grabbing the small frame up.

"I can cook for you, then. Come on, Kell let’s go shopping for groceries first. Knowing you and your sweet tooth I don’t think you have anything in the house for a proper meal." 

When they've come back to the house, Kelley quickly makes her way to the couch in living room. She sits beside Caitlin while watching her favorite shows. Hope just shakes her head when she sees her girlfriend slap Caitlin's hand away from her bowl of snacks without even moving her eyes away from the screen.

While Hope cooks the spaghetti, she remembers how Kelley starts to pile up few snacks in their trolley earlier. When Kelley was distracted, Hope puts it back on the shelves. Kelley noticed the missing bags from the trolley while they are waiting on the line to pay and starts to whines at Hope. Hope even threatens her with Dawn but it doesn’t deter the small defender. 

As the lines were quite long, Hope was subject to different type of persuasion by her girlfriend. When her whining and stomping feet were ignored, Kelley starts to snuggle close to the keeper and suggest for a barter trade. One kiss for each snack she can take. Although she was tempted, Hope stands firmed. When that doesn't work, Kelley starts to pout her lips and begs the keeper complete with the full waterworks.

When that also didn’t work, Kelley gets few of the children in the shop involved. She doesn’t know how her girlfriend can rope them into her scheme. Some even faking cried over the missing snack. When few of the parents start to look at her strangely, Hope caves in. 

The same defender is now holding the bowl that fills up with her favorite gummy bears and M&M. Hope limit it for a small bowl so that it doesn’t spoil her appetite for lunch. Hope loves that she able to take care of Kelley like this. That’s what people in love do. They take good care of each other. 

Time stopped. Hope drops the spoon that she's holding to her mouth. She can hear the clink of the spoon hitting the floor. 

"I'm in love with Kelley." The keeper suddenly realised.

When Kelley turns her head and raised her eyebrow questionably, Hope just stared at her beautiful brown eyes. 

"I'm screwed." Hope thought to herself. 

The End.


End file.
